Alerted after two incidents of lynching of seven persons in Seraikela and Jamshedpur on May 18 following rumours of child-lifting gangs operating in certain parts of the State surfaced on WhatsApp, the police have been closely monitoring social media to prevent such incidents in future. DGP DK Pandey has said that cyber crimes are posing a big challenge to them.
"Following these two incidents, a close vigil is being kept on the social media," said the DGP. The messages being posted on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook are being monitored very closely by the police all over the State, he added.
"We are also trying to make people understand that nobody will be spared if found involved in spreading rumours leading to any untoward incident," he added. Pradhans and mukhias of all panchayats of the two districts have been asked that rumours in any form need to be checked strictly, he added.
"They have also been warned not to spread irresponsible messages on social media and the group media will be held responsible for any kind of inflammatory messages forwarded by any group member," said Pandey.
In addition to that, taking proactive steps towards checking cyber crimes in the wake of increasing cyber crimes in the State, temporary cyber police stations are being set up in each of the districts, under which 10 police personnel will be picked up in each of the district and trained for checking cyber crimes.
"It will be a temporary arrangement by us till funds and other requirements are fulfilled at the Government level," said the DGP.
A multipronged strategy is also being adopted to educate people involving print, social and electronic media with a direction that they should not pay heed to baseless rumours and also not to become part of such messages.
"If they come across such information, they are being asked to first report it to the police so that swift and strict action could be taken," said IG (Operations) Ashish Batra. The DCs and SPs have also been requested to send bulk SMSs to the phone numbers available in the data base of Kisan Portal and e-Panchayats to make more and more people aware in this regard, he added.
"They have also been asked to engage mukhia, pradhan and panchayat sevaks in the rural areas to create awareness among the people, besides educating the villagers through loudspeakers", said Batra.
Meanwhile, to check rumours from spreading further in the two districts, focus is being made on making people aware that no incident of child-lifting has been reported in the entire State.
"We are making announcements through public address system and also through bulk SMSs sent on the basis of database of Kisan portal available with us. We have also asked for help from a traditional tribal body, 'Manjhi Mahal,' to help us in the campaign," said Jamshedpur SSP Anoop T Mathew. Mukhias, pradhans and chowkidars have also been asked to help the administration in making people aware that they should not pay attention to the unfounded rumours, he added.
"It's a new problem and we are trying to find innovative solution for that," said Matthew.
Seraikela SP Rakesh Bansal, on the other hand, said that messages posted on WhatsApp groups were being scanned regularly to check such incidents in future.
"A meeting of Deputy Commissioner with BDO, CO and office in-charge of police stations in the district was also held through e-video conferencing where they were asked to play a proactive role in educating people in their areas and also to be alert of such rumours and not to react against them," said Bansal.